Pirate, Why Do You Plunder?

If you are enjoying reading Neverland Fantasy Role-Playing or Neverland - The Impossible Island and want to run the setting like I do, your mind might turn to pirates. Or maybe you have another sea or space based pirate RPG you enjoy. We know what pirates do, but why do pirates plunder? Why flout the law and risk a hanging? Here are d6 ideas why your player character might choose to say, “A pirate life for me.” While these ideas are written with the high seas in mind, they can easily be ported into space as well.

picture courtesy of Pixabay​

1. Revenge​

Someone did you wrong. Maybe you were made to walk the plank but managed to swim to shore or were marooned on a desert island. Once you make it back to another crew you likely want to work your way up the ranks and plot to extract your revenge one day. Revenge may be something that drives you or it might be in the back of your mind waiting for the right time to be brought to fruition.

2. Rum-Soaked Dreams​

You drink a lot. Life seems to blend seamlessly between rum-fueled dreaming and real life. You talk to the unseen, you never walk in a straight line, and your crew never knows exactly what you may do next. However, you always come through in a fight or when sailing the high seas. You are chaos incarnate and dangerous as hell when swords cross.

3. Press Gang​

Piracy was not a choice because you were press ganged into it. Then you found out you were good at fighting, drinking, and raiding. And your old life seemed dull by comparison. You have taken to the pirate life, but you remember those who forced you into it. Whether you want them to pay for kidnapping you remains a choice you haven’t made just yet. Until then you will sail and loot and live your new life.

4. Ruthless​

You might have been kicked out of the Royal Marines for brawling, just avoiding the hangman. Or the merchant marine cashiered you for drunkenness. You are just too mean and too rough for legal work on the seas. But as a pirate those violent skills and lack of impulse control can take you far, if you avoid angering the officers. And if they cause you too much grief, well, mutiny can always lead to a brand new command if needed.

5. Wanderlust​

You kill when needed and take what you need. But what you really enjoy are new port towns to visit, hearing a new foreign language, and smelling salt spray from many different seas. Maybe you collect seashells or take notes on what you’ve seen or you only feel truly alive while at sea. You want to sail and keep sailing and you’re willing to kill to keep enjoying the privilege.

6. Buried Treasure​

You’re in it for the gold. You want to be rich or maybe you just want piles of loot. You know you have to be careful if you aren’t the captain to keep your greed hidden. Dead men tell no tales may be a cliché, but it is a cliché for a good reason. If you discover the location of buried treasure you have be very careful who you share that secret with.

Next time you decide to play a pirate, pause for a moment and consider how your pirate joined the life and why he stays. Then hoist the Jolly Roger and sail off to unearth buried treasure and take to a life of skullduggery on the high seas. Or pick up a blaster, board a beat up starship, and head for the Outer Rim as a pirate in search of merchant prey.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Historically, they tended to be the same murderous, raping, scum who commit similar crimes on dry land. Small-tie losers, cowards, and failures. The vast majority through the ages did not sail far; they tended to man small, fast boats and attack ships in constrained waters. then retreating to land. They have persisted through the ages when other forms of banditry went to their well-deserved gallows because they have exploited international law and waters. There are few groups so thoroughly despicable, throughout history, as pirates.

 

[payn]

Well, many pirates were also sanctioned by governments to wreck havoc on other governments too. In a way, it was patriotic for a privateer to raid the enemies of their homeland.

The series Black Sails on Starz was a sort of prequel to Treasure Island. The entire premise of the series was to build wealth to afford protection and liberty from what the pirates saw as oppressive government. Essentially, plundering to buy their own legitimacy and security for Nassau.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Historically, they tended to be the same murderous, raping, scum who commit similar crimes on dry land. Small-tie losers, cowards, and failures. The vast majority through the ages did not sail far; they tended to man small, fast boats and attack ships in constrained waters. then retreating to land. They have persisted through the ages when other forms of banditry went to their well-deserved gallows because they have exploited international law and waters. There are few groups so thoroughly despicable, throughout history, as pirates.

Captain Hook, thankfully, isn't historical.

 

[R_J_K75]

That's a really cool picture. Is it a painting, drawing or photoshop, I can't tell? Regardless its one of the last pieces of art Ive took notice of in a long time, well done.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

That's a really cool picture. Is it a painting, drawing or photoshop, I can't tell? Regardless its one of the last pieces of art Ive took notice of in a long time, well done.

According to Pixabay the artist is a photographer. Doesn't say how this art was created though.

 

[R_J_K75]

According to Pixabay the artist is a photographer. Doesn't say how this art was created though.

Yeah I looked didnt see much either. Doesnt quite look like a painting or a photograph Im gonna say a little of both.

 

[aco175]

A line that goes along with the gold is that they may need to just to survive. The modern day pirates along Ethiopia attack ships for loot, but there is also few options for them in town. Still does not make it right, but at least it is understandable.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

A line that goes along with the gold is that they may need to just to survive. The modern day pirates along Ethiopia attack ships for loot, but there is also few options for them in town. Still does not make it right, but at least it is understandable.

Yeah, this article is more about fantasy pirates. Adventuring pirates who go out with a wizard and halfling to face down a menacing giant crocodile. Nothing in the article is about the real world. The sci-fi space pirate thing is also fiction.

 

[tomBitonti]

I thought there was a fuzzy line between "private" and "privateer", with the latter having a commission to capture enemy merchant vessels? And, that often "privateers" might become "pirates" (haha: not "privates"), if their commission expired, or if they just didn't want to stop plundering, or if they weren't careful enough about whom they attacked, or because of political expedience.

Also, might not there be pirates which were lawful military vessels which due to circumstance went rogue? Either, because of a lost war, or because of disrupted supply lines, or just because they could?

TomB